Editorial pages across America recognize today’s attempt by Republicans to re-open the donut hole and take away small business tax breaks for what it is: a “pointless,” “divisive,”“political stunt.” Republicans should drop the “charade” and work with Democrats on common-sense solutions to create jobs and strengthen the middle class.

Charleston Gazette: The Charade of Undoing Health Reform. “Today, Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives are scheduled to vote to revoke medical insurance for 32 million ‘working poor’ Americans — and the GOP is proclaiming deceptive reasons for the action. … What a charade. Phony reasons are being advanced to justify stripping medical coverage from 32 million Americans who aren’t poor enough to receive Medicaid, but lack good-paying careers that include employer-provided insurance.” LINK

York Dispatch: Pointless, Divisive Health Care Vote. “Republicans are expected to make good on their campaign promise by attempting to repeal the historic health care reform bill that expanded coverage to millions of Americans and added benefits for many, including young adults and seniors. It’s a symbolic vote, because even if it clears the House as expected, it has little or no chance of winning approval in the Democrat-controlled Senate, and even if it did it wouldn’t survive a presidential veto. Just as well, considering a new poll shows only one in four people now support a repeal, a move the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office says would add $230 billion to the federal deficit by 2021. But the Republicans are going to go through the motions anyway, reality be damned.” LINK

Las Vegas Sun: Voting on Nonsense. “House Republicans are expected to approve the inanely titled ‘Repealing the Job-Killing Health Care Law Act.’ It is a futile and foolish act because it will be defeated by Senate Democrats who have the common sense to realize that this country had a broken health care insurance system that was badly in need of reform.” LINK

San Jose Mercury News: Honest Debate About Health Care Reform Would Be Welcome. “House Republican leaders plan to deliver this week on their vow to repeal President Barack Obama’s health care overhaul. It’s a symbolic exercise, since the Senate and Obama won’t go along. The real question is whether Americans will get the ‘thoughtful consideration of the health care bill’ House leaders are promising.” LINK

Morris County Daily Record: Health Care Repeal a Political Stunt. “Today is the day the new Republican-controlled House plans to repeal what they derisively call ‘Obama-care.’ We are positive about a few things. One is that the repeal will pass. The second is that the story will end there. The Senate, which is controlled by Democrats, will not even consider the repeal measure. So, why should the House even bother? Well, for the newly-emboldened House Republicans, it is all about partisan politics.” LINK

St. Louis Dispatch: Never Mind Reality: The Health Care Repeal Vote Is Based On ‘Truthiness.’ “As the new Republican leadership in the House of Representatives today holds its meaningless vote to repeal last year’s health care reform law, we can’t help but think back to a seminal moment in modern American politics: Oct. 17, 2005. … The off-handed dismissal of the CBO’s projections was Colbert-worthy rhetoric, given that the very same day, Mr. Boehner and five fellow Republican House leaders condemned the health care reform law by releasing a document crammed with CBO citations to bolster its credibility." LINK

Boston Globe: Claims By House GOP Don’t Justify Repeal Of Health Reform. “As House Republicans move today to repeal the landmark health reform law, the first reports on its provisions are filtering in. They are all premature — the law doesn’t take full effect until 2014 — but show, perhaps predictably, a mixed bag of successes and at least one initial failure. Yet none of the reports begins to justify the Republican call for repeal, let alone their core claim that the law would ‘cost’ 650,000 jobs.” LINK

San Diego Union-Tribune: Health Care Law: Time To Get Constructive. “Newly ascendant House Republicans are expected this week to repeal the health care overhaul enacted by Congress and signed into law by President Barack Obama last March. But given that Democrats control the Senate and White House, this amounts to a symbolic repudiation of the law by the GOP. After this is done, we hope Republicans and Democrats alike take a more substantive course and address basic problems in the sweeping legislation. Not all of the criticism the law faces comes from anti-government ideologues.” LINK

Hudson Valley Daily Freeman: Improve, Don’t Repeal. “As House Republican leaders move toward a vote to repeal the national health care reform signed into law last year, a new poll shows a moderating of opposition. … Improving the new, broad coverage of Americans, not repeal, is where members of Congress should put their energies.” LINK

Bemidji Pioneer: Repeal Ends Pre-Existing. “With the U.S. House poised to vote tonight on repeal of the Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare as the Republicans call it, the Republican-held House will seek to undo significant health care reform Under a mantra that the health care reform measure is a ‘job killer,’ Republicans are wrongly characterizing a bill that will provide thousands of jobs. But one of the worst characterizations is what repeal of the bill would do to people who otherwise would not have insurance. The Affordable Care Act provides insurance to 129 million Americans with pre-existing conditions that insurance companies would deny coverage.” LINK